Cross-Border Europe (CBCommerce), a platform promoting cross-border online commerce in Europe, published its yearly Top 500 Cross-Border Retail Europe study on the 500 strongest European players in cross-border e-commerce for the fourth time. Cross-border online commerce (excluding the travel segment) generated total sales of €171.2 billion in the EU in 2021, up 17 percent year on year. European online stores accounted for €100 billion of this cross-border revenue. The ranking is generated with parameters like:
- Cross-border online sales in Europe (15 countries in Western Europe and Scandinavia plus the UK)
- SEO indicators for cross-border performance
- Cross-border score, depending on the number of countries visited
- Number and percentage of users who are not from the merchant’s country of origin
According to CBCommerce findings, Ikea, H&M and Lego are leading the list, and more apparel retailers like Zalando, About You and Zara, are among the top ten. As a consequence of Brexit, the U.K has lost its position as the number one country of border-crossing online retail within the EU to Germany. The total number of British retailers in the top 500 dropped by 32 percent, from 100 to 68.
The study also sees the number of multichannel companies declining, while the number of brands selling DTC like Adidas or Lego has risen by 50 percent, and big groups like LVMH have invested in their DTC services to reduce their dependence on larger marketplaces. With Decathlon being among them, those marketplaces have grown their revenues by 45 percent to a total of €20 billion. Among the new entries to the top 500 list is Gymshark, a pure player born on the Internet and so-called Digital Native Vertical Brand (DNVB) – a business model that CBCommerce sees on the rise in the coming years.
As a wrap-up, the platform sees cross-border online commerce grow strongly over the next few years. This expectation is supported by the study that finds a year-on-year increase of 40 percent in cross-border visitors: the top 500 alone register 1.4 billion visits per month.
